Spira’s Notes: The Official Mucusless Diet Healing System eCourse Study Guide

THESE NOTES ARE NOT INTENDED AND HAVE NOT BEEN PREPARED TO SERVE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROF. ARNOLD EHRET’S MUCUSLESS DIET HEALING SYSTEM, LECTURES BASED ON THE CONTENT OF THE BOOK, OR FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT.

This edition of Spira’s Notes is specifically designed to accompany Prof. Spira’s Mucusless Diet Healing System eCourse: Keys for Mastering a Mucus-free Life. Although it is primarily based on Spira’s annotated, revised, and edited edition of Prof. Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System, it may act as an apt companion to any edition of the original work.

Inspired by the famous CliffsNotes series of study guides, the aim is to summarize, outline, analyze, and provide review materials that cover the most important points of the Mucusless Diet Healing System text.

“This book represents an outline of the serious nature of my work and it also appeals to you for help in carrying it through as the greatest deed you can perform—upon which depends not only your future destiny, but that of a suffering, unhappy humankind—on the verge of physical and mental collapse.” – Arnold Ehret in the Mucusless Diet Healing System

Greetings Brothers and Sisters!

Part of my life’s mission is to help carry Arnold Ehret’s message forth to people of the 21st century, many of whom are in desperate need of his wisdom. In the early 1900s, Ehret found answers to some of humanity’s most difficult questions, and for over 100 years, too few people have had the privilege of hearing his message. The intention of this study guide is to play a major role in changing this! Billions of people around the world can and will benefit from Ehret’s message, but the necessary educational tools must be developed and made available for health seekers and health educators alike.

This edition of Spira’s Notes: The Official Mucusless Diet Healing System eCourse Study Guide is first and foremost a companion to Prof. Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System: Annotated, Revised, and Edited by Prof. Spira. This guide is not meant to replace reading or listening to the audiobook of the original Mucusless Diet text. The intention is to facilitate further study for students of my Mucusless Diet Healing System eCourse, as well as students of Arnold Ehret’s work in general.

Many students of the eCourse will not only gain the tools to become lifelong practitioners of the diet, but also health educators inspired to share Ehret’s message with their families, friends, patients, and students. Each lesson from the Mucusless Diet book is broken down into several corresponding components in this guide, including lesson summaries, outlines, glossaries, review questions, and in some cases, a list of books to consider for further reading.

Students of the eCourse are asked to first read and listen to the full text of each lesson from the Annotated, Revised, and Edited Mucusless Diet, then watch my short video discussions of the lesson, and then finally use this book to review the main points from the aforementioned. If you follow this simple formula, you will develop a firm grasp of Ehret’s methods and be empowered to move forward with your healing journey confidently.

For educators, this book provides resources that will allow you to share Ehret’s message more efficiently. The layout and formatting of the text make it the perfect companion for leading informal round-table discussions, giving lectures, preparing your own lecture notes, and designing seminars. Each lesson starts with the summary on odd-numbered pages, followed by the outline on the following even-numbered pages. In most cases, the entire outline fits on two or three pages. This will help discussion leaders and lecturers use the outline as a guide without the need to constantly turn pages or skim through the full Mucusless Diet text for main points during their presentations.

The glossary sections include key words from each lesson with brief definitions or discussions. A number of the definitions are composed and adapted by me based upon Arnold Ehret’s original concepts or material. Some keywords and their definitions derive from relevant idiomatic phrases developed and used within the mucus-free community. Others are standard definitions in which I surveyed multiple sources and construct definitions that best matches the context and meaning of Ehret’s usage of the term. Sources in which I consulted include Merriam-Webster.com, Etymonline.com, Britannica.com, OxfordDictionaries.com, MedicineNet.com, BusinessDictionary.com, OxfordReference.com, Dictionary.com, Wiktionary.org, Wikipedia.com, and CollinsDictionary.com.

A number of ancient wisdom traditions teach that we humans feel our best and are most at peace with the Universe when we RECEIVE FOR THE SAKE OF SHARING. When we obtain knowledge, love, resources, strength, wisdom, freedom, etc., it is a Universal law that we feel our best when we can share some bit of it with others in ways that enhance their lives. My hope is that this study guide enables you to effortlessly receive and understand Ehret’s message with such proficiency that you are not only able to transform your own health for the better, but feel so wonderful that you are compelled to share this information with others. Share freely and without judgment, as you never know who will discover Ehret’s work, “get it,” and begin their own journey back to the paradisiacal lifestyle that Arnold Ehret envisioned for humanity.

Peace, Love, and Breath!

–Prof. Spira, PhD, July 2017

Summary: Lesson I

In Lesson I, Prof. Arnold Ehret offers a general introduction to his Mucusless Diet Healing System. First, he defines “constipation” as the foundation of human illness and explains that it comes from uneliminated, unnatural food substances accumulated since childhood. Second, he proclaims that his Mucusless Diet Healing System is the answer to healing human illness and that many “declared-incurable patients” could be saved through its practice. Third, Ehret defines the mucusless diet as a diet consisting of all kinds of raw and cooked fruits, starchless vegetables, and raw and cooked green-leaf vegetables. The Mucusless Diet as a Healing System, however, is described as an eloquent system that employs progressively changing menus that move from a mucus-heavy diet toward a mucus-free diet, as well as individually advised forms of fasting in alignment with the needs of each practitioner. Finally, Ehret identifies the human body as an elastic pipe system and observes that the average person’s diet is never fully eliminated, which results in toxic residues accumulating in the body. These toxic residues ultimately become the foundation of human illness. Ehret asserts that his healing system is the only way to remove the waste intelligently and carefully, thereby establishing the internal environment in which the body heals itself.

Outline: Lesson I

1)      What Is Constipation?

1. a)  Every disease, despite the name by which it is known, is “CONSTIPATION.”
2. i) Ehret defines “constipation” as a clogging up of the entire pipe system of the human body.
3. ii)  Symptoms of disease occur from accumulated mucus in a specific location in the body.
4. b) Accumulation points include:
5. i) Tongue, stomach, and entire digestive tract.
6. ii) The average person may have as much as 10 pounds of uneliminated feces in the bowels poisoning the bloodstream.

iii) Every sick person is clogged with mucus and waste.

1. c) Where does the mucus come from?

i)”Undigested, uneliminated, and unnatural food substances accumulated since childhood.”

1. d) Ehret’s “Mucus-Theory” and Mucusless Diet Healing System
2. i) Proven to be the most successful “compensation action” or therapy of eating to overcome human illness.

(1) Ehret asserts, “Thousands of declared-incurable patients could be saved” using the methods found in the Mucusless Diet.

1. e) What is the Mucusless Diet?
2. i) (Strict definition) All kinds of raw and cooked fruits, starchless vegetables, and cooked or raw, mostly green-leaf vegetables.
3. f) What is the Mucusless Diet as a Healing System?
4. i) It is a systematic combination of progressively changing menus toward mucus-free foods, or what Ehret calls the “transition diet” in later lessons, individually advised short- or long-term fasting, as well as ancillary therapies such as enemas, exercise, and sunbathing.

2)      What Is Vitality?

1. a) Ehret affirms that the human body and the cause of human illness are still a mystery to medical scientists.
2. b) Simplicity is key!
3. i) Ehret says, “whatever simple reason cannot be grasped is humbug, however scientific it may sound.”
4. c)  You will learn:
5. i) How wrong it is to think that disease can be healed by just eating the “right foods” or special menus.
6. ii) The complete “system” must be understood and applied for success.

iii) Each person’s situation is different, and special advice must be considered for each individual case.

3)      What Is Fasting?

1. a) Abstaining from food and/or drink for an indefinite period of time.
2. b) Ehret asserts that fasting has been used for millennia to naturally heal sick people.
3. i) Fasting and Mucusless Diet are “Nature’s only and infallible laws.”

(1) Stated in the biblical book of Genesis as “fruits and herbs,” i.e., green leaves.

1. c) Why do some fasting attempts fail?
2. i) Because they are not used systematically according to the condition of the patient.

4)      What Is Disease?

1. a) Ehret says “Disease is an effort of the body to eliminate waste, mucus, and toxemias.”
2. b) “Not the disease, but the body is to be healed.”
3. i) To do this, the body must be cleansed of accumulated foreign matter and toxic waste.
4. c) The Healing System is not a cure, but a regeneration of the human body, mind, and spirit.
5. d) All disease has its primary source in a filthy colon.
6. e) “What medical science calls ‘normal health’ is in fact a pathological condition.”
7. i) In other words, what is considered normal and “healthy” is actually a sick/diseased condition.

5)      In Summa

1. a)  The human body is an elastic pipe system.
2. b) The diet of civilization is not properly digested or its waste eliminated.
3. c)  The pipe system becomes slowly constipated.
4. d) This constipation directly or indirectly causes all human illnesses.
5. e)  To loosen and eliminate this waste properly can only be done by the Mucusless Diet Healing System.

Constipation: Ehret defines “constipation” as “a clogging up of the entire pipe system of the human body” with waste. The term may also be used to refer to an acute or chronic condition in which there is difficulty emptying the bowels because of an accumulation of hard, dry, and/or sticky fecal matter. Ehret is referring to constipation throughout the entire organism and not just the bowels.

Mucus: The word “mucus” is from the Latin mucus meaning “slime, mold, snot, etc.” Mucus refers to a thick, viscous, slippery discharge that is comprised of dead cells, mucin, inorganic salts, water, and exfoliated cells. It also refers to the slimy, sticky, viscous substance left behind by mucus-forming foods in the body after ingestion.

Mucus Theory: A philosophical and theoretical framework created by Prof. Arnold Ehret that identifies mucus-forming foods as unnatural and indigestible for the human body. It is asserted that these foods leave behind uneliminated waste in the body which is the primary cause of human illness and premature aging. Ehret postulates that by removing mucus-forming foods from one’s diet, many human illnesses can be healed and prevented.

Mucusless (also Mucus-Free): Refers to foods that are not mucus-forming. Such foods digest without leaving behind a thick, viscous, slimy substance called mucus. These foods include all kinds of fat-free and starchless fruits and vegetables.

Mucus-Forming: Refers to foods that create or leave behind uneliminated mucus in the human body. Such foods include meats, dairy, grains, starches, and fats.

Blood: The red fluid that flows through the veins and arteries of humans and other vertebrate animals, transporting oxygen to, and waste/carbon dioxide from, the tissues of the body.

Toxemia: An abnormal condition associated with the presence of toxic substances in the blood.

Vitality: Sometimes referred to as “vital force” in biological theory, refers to the force that animates and perpetuates life. Ehret’s particular theory of vitality is expounded on in subsequent lessons, particularly Lesson V.

Naturopathy: Term coined in 1895 by John Scheel and made famous in the United States by one of Arnold Ehret’s students named Benedict Lust, who founded the first school of naturopathy in 1902. Naturopathic medicine favors a holistic and drugless approach to healing and endeavors to employ the least invasive measures necessary to relieve symptoms and heal human illness.

Natural Hygiene (also Orthopathy): A healing philosophy derived from naturopathy that advocates plant-based diets, periods of intermittent fasting, and other lifestyle measures to address the symptoms of disease.

Medical science (Allopathic Medicine): The branch of science concerned with the study of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. “Allopathic medicine” is an expression used by many proponents of natural healing to refer to mainstream medical use of pharmacology or physical interventions to treat or suppress symptoms of disease.

Fasting: To abstain from the intake of food and drink. It may also refer to various forms of dietary restriction, which include abstaining from solid foods (juice or liquid fasting), mucus-forming foods (mucusless diet), animal products, and so forth. Fasting may also refer more broadly to abstaining from modern conveniences or unnatural additions, such as a fast from electricity or the use of electronics for a period of time.

Disease: Ehret defines disease, or human illness, as an effort of the body to eliminate waste, mucus, and toxemias. Ehret does not purport to “treat” diseases, but to heal human illness through his Healing System.

Practitioner: Within the mucus-free community, this term is often used to identify a person who practices, or endeavors to perform, the Mucusless Diet Healing System as a lifestyle. This is distinct from the use of the term to identify the practice of a professional in a specialized field (e.g., a legal practitioner).

Review Questions: Lesson I

1. How does Arnold Ehret define disease?
2. How does Ehret define constipation?
3. About how many pounds of uneliminated fecal matter is in the typical person?
4. According to Ehret, humans can be healed by using special menus or radical fasts. (True or False)
5. According to Ehret, what is “Nature’s infallible law and omnipotent healing process”?
6. Ehret says, “whatever simple reason cannot grasp is humbug, however scientific it may sound.” What do you think is meant by this statement?
7. Why are Fasting and the Mucusless Diet often not successful in many cases?